IHE 4: Leader of the Pack, Metamorphosis, Legion
by Jenigoyle
Summary: Goliath begins the second season...


In His Eyes Entry 4: Leader of the Pack, Metamorphosis, & Legion Jenigoyle  
  
I don't own Gargs (otherwise it would still be ON ahem) and I just write to please. Thanks to Midz and SS and Lily as always-and, of course, to Todd; he's truly an inspiration! If anyone appreciates my work, thank him, because the Barracuda is who inspired me to start in the first place! Well, enough mush, time for me to write and you to read..  
  
Manhattan, 1995 AD  
  
It has been a couple of months since I last wrote. I do not usually go so long, but yet I do not usually write unless I have reason. And until recently, I had none.  
We had a quiet spring, nearly yawning our way through patrols that led on to a hot, tedious summer. We stopped robberies, foiled muggings, helped Elisa to track down wanted criminals.  
Elisa.  
She never ceases to amaze me. Over the last year I have known her, she impressed me more and more with her dedication to us and to the city. It seems that she is constantly on duty, and if she is not, she is with us- with me. I have often asked her when she sleeps, and she laughingly tells me "in her dreams." Another thing I came to enjoy about her is her sharp wit. She is such a complex person, and yet has such a basic simplicity of what is right and wrong.  
I asked her once how it is possible to determine right and wrong in these times, and she just looked at me for a moment and told me that there is no mistaking what hurts people and what doesn't. It was so simple, the way she said it, and so perfectly true. She never fails to help me put things into perspective, and I told her such. She just smiled, patted me on the shoulder, and told me that I did the same for her. I do not know how, but I am glad if I can do half as much for her as she does for me.  
Just a few weeks ago, the Pack broke out of prison. Elisa came to us the next night, announcing that a human "dressed in black" was responsible. Lexington immediately wanted to act, and before we could say or do anything, he was bounding outside. Elisa and I chased after him, calling out for him to wait. He had wanted to check out Pack Media Studios, and Elisa told him that the police were already checking it out. Brooklyn came out, telling Lexington that they would check it out, taking Bronx with them.  
They did not ask my permission, but I allowed them to go. I did not believe that the Pack would be there, and I knew that Brooklyn would watch out for Lexington. Brooklyn has a very level head, unless Demona is involved.  
I voiced my opinion that the Pack would not be foolish enough to return to the studio, and Hudson agreed. He said that we needed to go to the source of the problem. Elisa agreed. The man who created the Pack. David Xanatos.  
  
Hudson and Broadway accompanied me to the Aerie building to confront Xanatos about the Pack's escape. We found his servant, Owen, and I demanded to speak with Xanatos, but he told us that he was not available and that he believed our business was with the Pack. He said that they were "scheduled" to be at the studio and that we should be there. I knew it was a trap, obviously, but Brooklyn, Lexington, and Bronx were already there. I told Owen hurriedly that I would speak to Xanatos later.  
We glided out to the studio, but we found it deserted. There had been a fight, though, and soon the telephone near Broadway rang. I nodded for him to answer it, which he did. I watched him as he listened to whoever was speaking with him, his frown growing with every word. Soon he was gripping the telephone angrily and muttering that the Pack had our clanmates.  
Broadway told us that we were to go to a ship in the bay, and we knew it was a trap. We went anyway, and found exactly who we were looking for.  
The Pack was indeed there, along with some new leader that called himself Coyote. I fought with him, and when I had the chance I ripped of his helmet, and found none other than Xanatos smirking back at me. He slipped from my grasp, leaping to the deck below, and I followed, struggling with him until Bronx came and tackled him. Apparently the others had managed to free Brooklyn, Lexington, and Bronx. The timing was impeccable. When I sat up and looked over at our faithful watchdog, I was horrified at first, for Bronx seemed to be chewing on Xanatos's head!  
But he kicked Bronx off and stood, and to my amazement, but not really surprise, the "flesh" that Bronx had torn away revealed a machine. Xanatos and his robots. I swear.  
The automaton tried to come at me, but was suddenly blown up by a blast from behind, revealing Lexington holding a laser rifle.  
Eventually, we cornered the Pack, none of us seriously hurt. They escaped, though, and the ship was sinking from all the explosions and laser shots earlier. We fled, and headed back to the clock tower, dissatisfied that we were unable to capture any of them.  
I discussed it with Elisa the next night, and she reassured me that "we got them once, and we can get them again." She always sounds so confident. It must be rubbing off onto me, because I find that I feel I can do anything when we are side by side.  
Several nights later, Brooklyn and Broadway were out on patrol and found a young woman running from mercenaries. They tried to save her, but failed-Broadway had to pull Brooklyn away when he had been tranquilized by the mercenaries. They came back and relayed the story to the rest of us.  
Apparently, she was some sort of gargoyle; Broadway said she had wings and a tail. Elisa looked at the bracelet they'd taken from her, saying it was a tracking device. She left to investigate while I kept Brooklyn barely contained.  
She returned to tell us before sunrise that she had checked out a Doctor Anton Sevarius and was sure he was hiding something. Brooklyn asked if she could arrest him, but she said that her hands were tied.  
Sunrise came then, and when we awoke that night, Brooklyn was prepared to take off after Sevarius, but I made him stay, telling him that I had a plan.  
We went to the building Elisa said that Sevarius worked in, and broke in. It was not long before we found Brooklyn's friend in some glass cage. We freed her, but an alarm went off and we were instantly surrounded by firing mercenaries. We apprehended the girl and prepared to leave. I punched a hole in the ceiling, but Sevarius held on to my feet, trying to stop us. I kicked him aside, hearing glass breaking behind me as we fled the building.  
We took the unconscious girl to the tower, and when she awoke she told us that she had been human and that her name was Maggie. She had asked if we had been human, too, and I told her no, and winced when she said that she was not a monster. Brooklyn tried to soothe her, but she was completely afraid, huddled into a pathetic little ball.  
I pulled on Brooklyn's shoulder, telling him the sun was rising. I told Maggie that we would find a cure for her. I knew I was taking a chance, but we allowed her to stay and roam free at the tower. I had hoped that she would stay, but when sunset came, we discovered that she had fled.  
We immediately went to the castle, discovering Maggie and several others that had been changed like her. They attacked us, and one of them, a panther-like gargoyle, attacked me vehemently. He had me on the ground and was constantly shooting me with some kind of electrical energy from his hands.  
Just then, Elisa arrived and held my attacker at bay as she moved closer to me. Yet again, I owed her my life.  
I watched the exchange between the two until Elisa had said that she wanted to help the one who had attacked me-he called himself Talon-and he asked her almost pitifully if she would promise to help him. She said, "Cross my heart," and he finished, saying "Hope to die." Just then, Elisa came to the realization that Talon was really Derek!  
She tried to tell him that Xanatos was the cause for his mutated condition, but he objected, and as he turned his back to her, his body discharged electricity, and it flowed into Elisa, knocking her down.  
I went to her aid as Derek howled in regret and took off from the castle. Elisa was furious with Xanatos and declared nothing short of war on him. I took her in my arms then, without another word, and ordered the clan to go with me. We went back to the clock tower, were I left Elisa in a corner, kneeling beside her. I asked if there was anything I could do.  
And then she did something that I never thought I would have seen were I to live another millennia.  
Looking at me with those great, woeful eyes, a single tear fell down her cheek, and as it did, I lifted a talon to brush it away-but the floodgates had opened. She began crying, then, and I asked her if she wanted to be alone. She nodded, and though it tore at me not to be there for her, I wanted to respect her wishes. So I leaped down and ordered the clan to stay away for the time being.  
I could not follow my own order, however, and soon found myself sitting beside Elisa again, holding her as she wept. She had not told me to leave her; indeed when I had gone back up to where she sat, weeping alone, she had latched onto me, and I was glad. I wanted to comfort her, to let her know that she was not alone and that I shared her pain.  
But we said nothing. I simply sat there, holding her against me, until she could no longer cry. I asked her if she wished to go home, and she told me that she did, so I took her home.  
The glide was silent-we said nothing. But when I reached her apartment and set her down on her balcony, she paused before going inside. She told me that she was sorry for crying on my shoulder like that, and I asked her what on earth she had to be sorry about? I asked her if she did not think I shed tears over my rookery brothers and sisters, over my Angel when I thought her dead? There was no shame in tears, I had told her.  
She smiled at me and thanked me. I told her that I was more than happy to be there for her-it made me feel like I had finally been able to give something back to her. She told me quietly that I gave her a lot, that I just did not know it. I did not know what to say to that, so I sat there on the perch, silently facing her. I asked if she would be alright. She told me that she would be. I only nodded, and watched her enter her apartment. I left shortly after, hoping that the next few days would not be as hard on her as that night had been.  
And then came the night that my brother returned.  
Elisa had given Lexington some new device and explained to me that it had to do with virtual reality. I was intrigued but wary. It sounded odd that one could use a machine to live a different kind of reality, a different kind of life. It seemed to me that if one was so unhappy with their life that they needed to escape to a.virtual world, I believe Elisa called it.then they needed to fix what was going on in their real life. But that is their own affair, not mine, so I digress.  
In any case, Lexington and I were on the rooftop of a building next to one that Elisa was investigating because some "creature" was inside doing something to a special computer. Lexington noticed the creature leaving and said that it-or rather "he"-looked like my rookery brother, now Coldstone.  
I took off after him, Lexington with me. We followed my brother to another rooftop nearby and landed. Coldstone immediately came after me, but recognized me before doing any permanent.damage. He seemed alright, and I asked him to come with us and rejoin the clan. He agreed, and we went back to the clock tower. Lexington cautioned me that it may not be prudent to totally trust Coldstone yet, but I told him that there could be no clan without trust. Even after the night's events, I stand by what I had said and I would not have proceeded differently. Trust is trust, and I had chosen to give it to my brother.  
We went back to the tower were the others greeted him warmly. His attitude shifted though-he spoke more softly and seemed not to remember our previous conversation.  
He took off in fear, and Hudson and I followed him. After catching up with him, I approached him cautiously, telling him that I trusted him. He said that I should not and fired on us.  
Soon he seemed to be fighting with himself though, screaming as though there were voices in his head. Soon the others arrived and Broadway hit Coldstone, knocking him to the ground, nearly unconscious. Lexington had the virtual reality machine with him and told us that someone needed to go inside the mind of my brother to help him.  
I said that I would do it, though Lexington protested. I told him that I needed him out in the real world should something go wrong.  
Soon I was hooked up to the machine; ironic, seeing as how I had always mistrusted the thing.  
Once Lexington turned the device on, I was engulfed by a bright light, and then I found myself amid a strange place with a pink atmosphere and castle Wyvern in the distance across a bridge hovering over a swirling vortex with long tentacles reaching out. It was the strangest place, if you could even call it a "place," that I had ever seen.  
I did not have long to look around however, for Xanatos himself appeared. Rather, it was his image. Figures. He stood atop Wyvern among three gargoyles. Not just any gargoyles-they were two of my brothers and one of my sisters, the mate of my brother Coldstone. They were in stone sleep as the Xanatos figure continued to speak. He told me that he-it-was some kind of control for Coldstone, bending him to Xanatos's will. There was a virus, however, that was destroying Coldstone's mind. Before I had a chance to say anything, he was gone and I ran across the bridge to my rookery siblings.  
My sister immediately leapt down to greet me, and I told her that it was good to see her again. Soon my brother was attacking me in rage, though, and I was flung down near the swirling vortex below that was the virus, I suppose. A tentacle latched on to me, and was trying to drag me down while my sister tried to hold on to me.  
Coldstone was beside us, accusing her of betraying him.  
So that is what he believed, I had thought to myself.  
He believed that his mate and I were betraying him.  
I looked up at our other brother. He had tried to plant that foolish idea into Coldstone's head over a millennium ago. Damned, jealous fool!  
I heard my sister plead on my behalf, and finally, just as my hand slid from hers, my brother grabbed me and freed me.  
Now clear, we scaled the wall, only to face our two foes, for Xanatos had returned. The castle twisted and shifted into the gigantic form of our deceptive brother, and Xanatos's image merged with his.  
He held my sister in his grasp, and my brother and I tried to get to her, but our evil brother swatted us down like flies. She bit his hand though, freeing herself, and we once again took to the air, distracting him until the long tentacles emerging from the vortex fastened onto him. We glided away as the tentacles pulled him into the vortex. Now free of our menacing brother, Coldstone and his mate told me to go back to my body. I asked what they would do, and my sister said that they were together and that was all that mattered.  
I felt a pang of jealousy as I thought of my own lost love then, but just slightly, for the world around me was being literally torn apart. I ran back to where I had first found myself there, and leaped into the whirling portal that would take me back to my body.  
And then I was back beside Coldstone, removing the eyepiece from my brow. I told the others that we would leave, and our timing was just right for Elisa's SWAT team had arrived, and we were able to leave just as her partner was coming up to the rooftop we had been on. We left the device for him to find there.  
We returned to the tower and I laid Coldstone to rest in his own corner, and there his body still lays dormant as the souls of my rookery siblings fight the virus that threatens to destroy them.  
Elisa came by yesterday, asking if there was anything she could do. I always appreciate that about her-she never asks how I am when she knows better. My brother and sister's souls were trapped in a cyborg's mind that was being devoured slowly by some virus and Xanatos. I think my feelings on the matter were self-explanatory. I told her that I was hopeful but doubtful that my sister and brother would defeat the virus. But Lexington has vowed to try and help them, and I wished him luck. I believe he will need it.  
  
Another one down! Thanks and keep reading, let me know what you all think! Until sunset, my friends. 


End file.
